I’m Wat I’m!!!

With the job markets opening up, it is time for all the aspiring techies to be equipped with the right skills that can land them in a job now. Recently, several reports have indicated that the job market is booming again after the slump due to the economic slowdown. Based on inputs from some industry watchers, Silicon India has come out with the list of the Top IT Skills currently in demand.

SAP
The surging demand in the ERP market is expected to increase the adoption of SAP in organizations around the globe. “The demand for SAP market is currently booming and with many companies adopting ERP these days, SAP continues to dominate this space,” says Harry CD, Executive Director-Operations at 3G Labs India. Currently, SAP and Oracle are the two major ERP players, however the former is having an advantage over the latter when it comes to the demand in the market. The reason behind this dominance of SAP in the ERP market is because of the customer satisfaction, according a study conducted by Panorama Consulting Group. Analysts have also predicted that SAP’s Business ByDesign offering will do well this year, which will drive the demand for more SAP professionals.

Some of the applications developed by SAP that are seeing major demand are:

SAP Web Dynpro: It is a proprietary web application user interface technology developed by SAP. The increasing number of web applications around the globe needs professionals having this skill.

SAP Plant Maintenance: It deals with the preventive maintenance of manufacturing equipment that accompanies a streamlined production process. SAP PM also monitors downtime of equipment, workforce production hour as well as the time, materials and labor necessary for such maintenance.

SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer: With the boom in the retail segment this is one tool that is bound to see growth in the coming days. Advanced Planner and Optimizer is designed to help a company improve production planning, pricing, scheduling, and product shipping. It works by getting real-time updates from retailers about customer demand.

SAP Governance, Risk management and Compliance: Today, every organization must chart its own course to embrace governance, risk management and compliance framework, weighing critical business requirements with organizational maturity and top-level commitment. Companies may choose to start by identifying one or two high-priority risk areas and initiate a business-specific or initiative-driven deployment of the applications.

Java
Today, Java is being used in more than 4.5 billion devices around the world and the usage is expected to rise further because of the growth in the number of mobile phones, personal computers and smart cards. Java applets help to have an improved functionality while browsing the internet also making it more attractive. “Java is in demand because there are more companies developing user interface and web applications for their clients. The rise in popularity of software as a service (SAAS) model is also giving the edge to Java professionals,” says Rishi Das, Co-founder and CEO of CareerNet Consulting.

C++
Many believe that the demand for C++ has always been there and there are not many signs that show the fall of this computer language in the near future. Satish Kumar, a HR executive with an IT firm believes that the demand for programmers like C++ remains constant because these are used in segments such as automobile, healthcare and communication systems, which are always in the growth trajectory.

PHP
PHP, which facilitates the production of dymanic web pages, was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and its growth has been phenomenal. Last year, PHP was estimated to have been installed on more than 20 million websites and over one million web servers, the number would have multiplied today considering the current surge in the online world. Today, there are several companies that are getting into this space that is driving the demand for professionals with knowledge about PHP.

IT Infrastructure Management
With more companies identifying the importance of infrastructure management services, there is a great demand for people who are specialized in this space, says Reuben Prem, an IT Recruiter in Bangalore. According to research firm IDC, currently investments in infrastructure management have the largest single impact on an organization’s revenue. Today, some of the top IT firms have also entered into this segment by identifying the opportunities that are available. Recently, TCS signed a five year contract with Malaysia Airlines for managing the airline’s datacentres, IT networks and IT security.

Oracle
Though there seems to be more demand for SAP professionals compared to Oracle, the demand for professionals in the overall ERP software market is on the rise. Forrester Research predicts that ERP software revenue from new licenses would have fallen 24 percent in 2009. However, 2010 looks good for ERP for several reasons such as the growth in open-source market and players like Microsoft broadening its ERP offerings. Anuj Agrawal, Director of Zyoin believes that the acquisitions that Oracle has been making in the recent past, especially the Sun Microsystems deal, may alter the ERP market and give some advantage to Oracle over SAP. In the financial services space Oracle applications still holds a high position with Oracle Financials, Oracle HRMS, Oracle Projects, Oracle CRM and Oracle PO considered as the most widely used applications and demand for them is moving upwards.

.NET
Since the birth of multi-core computing, there has been a requirement for parallel-programming architecture. Incidentally, almost every programmer considers .NET Framework 3.5 as getting distant and out of the way. To prevent its programming market fiasco, recently, Microsoft released the beta version of .NET Framework 4. Primarily, the MSDN site shows that the parallel extensions in the .NET 4, has been improvised to support analogous programming, targeting multi-core computing or distributed computing. Thus, making it the right time to be equipped with the .NET skills.

Embedded C++
The increasing demand for embedded systems is driving the growth for Embedded C++, which was defined by an industry group to address the shortcomings of C++ for embedded applications. The official website states the goal of Embedded C++ as to provide embedded systems programmers with a subset of C++ that is easy for the average C programmer to understand and use. “If your interest lies in embedded systems, having the knowledge of Embedded C++ will surely get you a job,” says Kumar.

C
C is still one of the most popular programming languages though it was developed nearly three decades ago and there are very few computer architectures for which a C compiler does not exist. C has greatly influenced many other popular programming languages, most notably C++, which originally began as an extension to C. “For all those who have been working on C, the demand still exists in the market because their application is wide,” says Prem.

At least 101 people have been killed in attacks by gunmen in Mumbai, police said on Nov 27, 2008.

Army personnel take position at the Gateway of India that stands in front of Taj Hotel in Mumbai.

“At least six foreigners have been killed and the death figure has gone up to 101 now,” Ramesh Tayde, a senior police officer told from Mumbai’s control room.

In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city’s most high-profile targets — the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard — killing at least 101 and sending hundreds of injured to hospital, according to latest reports.

The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city’s top police brass: The high-profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai’s additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed.

The attacks appeared to be aimed at getting international attention as the terrorists took upto 40 British nationals and other foreigners hostage. The chairman of Hindustan Unilever Harish Manwani and CEO of the company Nitin Paranjpe were among the guests trapped at the Oberoi. All the internal board members of the multinational giant were reported to be holed up in the Oberoi hotel.

Two terrorists were reported holed up inside the Oberoi Hotel. Fresh firing has been reported at Oberoi and Army has entered the hotel to flush out the terrorists.

An unknown outfit, Deccan Mujahideen, has sent an email to news organizations claiming that it carried out the Mumbai attacks.

The Army and Navy in Mumbai were put on alert. 65 Army commandos and 200 NSG commandos were being rushed to Mumbai, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.

The Navy commandos too have been asked to assist the police. Special secretary M L Kumawat is in constant touch with the state police.

Some media reports attributed the attack to Lashkar-e-Taiba. There were also unconfirmed reports that some of the terrorists came in by sea. A boat laden with explosives was recovered later at night off the Gateway of India.

Well after midnight, sources said two of the terrorists were shot and wounded at Girgaum in south Mumbai. The two were driving in a commandeered silver-coloured Skoda car. Earlier, these men had sprayed bullets from a police Bolero, outside the Metro Adlabs multiplex.

The attacks occurred at the busiest places. Besides hotels and hospitals, terrorists struck at railway stations, Crawford Market, Wadi Bunder and on the Western Express Highway near the airport. Several of these places are within a one-km radius of the commissioner of police’s office.

“This is definitely a terrorist strike. Seven places have been attacked with automatic weapons and grenades. Terrorists are still holed up in three locations Taj and Oberoi hotels and GT Hospital. Encounters are on at all three places,” said Maharashtra DGP A N Roy.

St George’s Hospital and G T Hospital were said to have received 75 bodies and more than 250 injured people, additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev said. Bombay Hospital got two bodies and 30 injured people were admitted there; Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle, got three dismembered bodies.

Three of the deaths occurred inside the Taj and one G T Hospital attendant died in a shootout inside the hospital. There were reports of people cowering under tables and chairs at both the Taj as well as G T Hospital.

Metro Junction resident Manoj Goel said: “My brother, Manish, died in the firing at Colaba’s Hamaal Galli.” Cops fired back at the men — probably from one of the Lashkar groups, dressed in black and with backpacks and SRPF, Crime Branch, ATS and teams of military commandos were summoned to the spot. Train services at CST were suspended and all roads leading to and from south Mumbai were blockaded.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh cut short his Kerala visit and was returning to Mumbai. He described the situation in Mumbai as “very serious”.

Deshmukh promised “stringent action” against the assailants but the mood across Mumbai was not so optimistic.

There were reports of firing around several landmark buildings in the Colaba-Nariman Point area, including the Taj hotel, Oberoi and other tourist attractions and pubs like Leopold’s. The top floor of Oberoi was said to be on fire amid reports of blasts in the area and blood-smeared bodies were being brought out of the Taj lobby.

Terrorists were said to be holed up at the Taj as well as G T Hospital and cops scampered to cordon off these places. A white flag was seen fluttering from an Oberoi Hotel window around 11.20 pm, where a blast was said to have occurred.

The blast on the Western Express Highway — near Centaur Hotel outside the airport — occurred in a taxi, deputy commissioner of police Nissar Tamboli said.

The firing and bombing started close to the Gateway of India. The gunbattle then moved on towards CST and raged on for over an hour from 10 pm, sending commuters running out of the station.

The assailants also fired into the crowd at CST and people on the trains and then ran out of the station themselves and into neighbouring buildings, including Cama Hospital, after being challenged by cops.

SRPF personnel then entered the iconic BMC building — just opposite CST — to take aim at the assailants, BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak said. “We fear some of the assailants are still inside the station and we want to catch them if they come out,” a police official said.

Vikhroli police station senior inspector Habib Ansari was on his way to work from his Colaba home when he saw two armed men, with sophisticated weaponry, trying to run into bylanes near the Gateway of India.”I rushed back to Colaba and all policemen, including GRP and RPF personnel, were called up,” he added.